Good Will Towards Man
by The Red Bull
Summary: Based on the 1939 short Peace on Earth


Good Will Towards Man By The Starfox  
  
The snow fell heavily on the cold ground outside the ancient tree stump. Inside an old rat stood in front of a large book and began to read its archaic words to the young mouselings gathered around in front of him. The old rat read for many hours and finally he came to the last line in the Aged book.  
".And let there be piece on earth and good will towards man."  
"Grandfather." Spoke one of the young mouse girls gathered at the paws of the old one.  
"Yes dear child." He responded.  
"Grandfather, what is a Man?" She asked the old one meekly. The old one sighed and came to sit in front of the great tome, the old one sighed again and slowly he began to speak.  
"You ask a very good question my dear child, a question I myself asked my elder when I was but a little older then you." The old rat stopped and took a breath. "Man was a giant creature, as large as a wolf or larger. He had large unblinking eyes that reflected everything like two blank mirrors and a long nose that connected to its chest, and there was no mouth upon there face." The old one looked at the fear filled faces of the young mice but knew that to stop his tale now would be far worse for the young mouselings then to continue. "Mans head was like a hard shell capable of withstanding great damage and their hide was lose and came in several colors, gray, green and blue seamed the most common. They used Incredable weapons capable of killing another Man in a single shot, as well as weapons very similar to those used by our hunters and sentries." The old one stopped and sighed. "That my child was a Man."  
"But grandfather, Why have none of us ever seen a Man?" Asked another young mouse.  
"That is simple my son. There are no more Mans."  
"Grawndpaw. What happened to da Mans?" Asked a small mousebabe.  
"They had a Great War my dear little one. They used their weapons to slaughter each other in the thousands and their leaders would unleash this yellow gas which killed any and all it touched, and finally after untold years of fighting, so much so that the sky was black with smoke and all the water had turned red. Then one day two Mans came stalking out of the smoke and ash, each was ravaged beyond recognition. Undeneath the shattered ramains of there faces they showed another face. A face with no muzzle, pale and dirt stained, a face contorted in rage and eyes that spoke only hate. They saw each other and pointed there great weapons at oneanother, but nothing hapend fore they nolonger worked. So they drew great knives whos blades were as long as I am tall and they charged across the open ground. They met with a great clash upon the open field, there blades flashing against each other. Tearing and slashing and gashing into the other man with such furry that finally each blade snaped off within each man and they fell." The old rat stoped to take his breath then continued, "But this was not the end of ether man...no saddly this was not the end of ether man. Each man rolled ever so slowly to face the other, blood ran freely from countless wounds staining the ground a rusty red. And the two mans, the last two mans, began to crawl towards each other...The two mans, those last two mans died, there hands haveing crushed the thoat of the other." The old rat let out a long mounful sigh, "This my dear little ones is why none of you have ever seen a man...and why none of us ever will." The old rat stoped his heart heavy from the telling of his storry. He survaid the faces around him, the spoke volums of fear, terror, pain and sorrow. Must of the younger children looked to horrifed to even cry. The old rat was sad to have done this to the children and he knew from his own experiance that it would be days, in some cases even weeks before most would be able to sleep calmly again. He hated himself for having told the tale so readily, but then so to had his elder hated telling this tale.  
The mouse girl who first asked the old rat looked up at him as tears began to mat the fur of her cheeks and began to speak, her voice low and raspy from the emotions running within her.  
"Why grandfather...why would we want to wish such a horrible creature, one who could and would and did murder his own kind to the point of extinction and beyond...Why would we ever want to wish something like...like that good will." The mouse girl shook with emotion, tears now flowed freely from her eyes as her voice began to rise, "Why grandfather, why do we wish them good will." With this what remained of the girls strength left her and she collapsed to her knees and began crying in earnest.  
The old rat rested his hand upon the mouse girls head and stroked her hair in a cumferting manner and making soothing nosies untill she began to calm. He locked down into her tear streaked face and blood shot eyes and calmly spoke the words that his elder had spoken to him.  
"Because my child he had none of his own." With these simple words still filling the halls of the ancient stump, the old rat rose to his feet and with the aid of his staff began his long treck home, hoping that the children would remember the lessons of man and would truely find it in there hearts to wish man the good will he could not wish himself. And he prayed silently that man had finnaly found his peace.  
  
»This story was inspired by the Fleischer cartoon Peace on Earth created by Hugh Harman and originally released in 1939...Funny realy that a cartoon made about the horrors of World War I would be released just as World War II was about to enter its hight. I first saw it on the old King Koopa Show long ago, he showed good cartoons. »Eliohann 00:06 / 01-06-04 


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